(Photos: Jill Steinberg) Paola Prestini (composer, librettist and orchestrator), Magos Herrera (composer, librettist and Sor Juana), and Louisa Proske (director) transformed the Met Cloisters for their world premiere processional opera, “Primero Sueño,” for a sold out audience on January 26th, 2025. OperaWire’s initial introduction to a collaboration piece by Prestini and Herrera, “Con Alma,” made this premiere feel extra exciting {…}
Welcome back for this week’s look at the latest CD and DVD releases in the opera world. This week audiences will get a good helping of baroque favorites and rarities, star-studded albums, world premieres and some fantastic modern works by recognized composers. Rufus Wainwright’s Dream Requiem The new album showcases Wainwright’s “Dream Requiem,” an epic work for orchestra, chorus, soprano, {…}
The Berlin State Opera has announced that it will present The Ring Cycle during the 2025-26 season. The company said that it would present Dmitri Tcherniakov’s production in two cycles at the beginning of the 2025-26 season. Christian Thielemann who conducted the Staatskapelle at the celebrated premieres of the productions in October 2022, will conduct Wagner’s monumental work as General Music {…}
The 51st Festival della Valle d’Itria in Martina Franca has announced its 2025 season with the theme “Guerre e pace.” The festival will be held between July 18 and August 3, 2025. Here is a look at the opera highlights: Operas Rossini’s “Tancredi” will be presened with Sesto Quatrini conducitng the Orchestra dell’Accademia del Teatro alla Scala. The opera will star {…}
Spanish mezzo-soprano Ana Mária Iriarte has died at the age of 98. Born on Jan. 23, 1927, in Madrid, the mezzo went to the Real Conservatorio Superior de Música de Madrid and later went to Vienna to continue her studies. She also studied in Milan under such renowned teachers as Elvira de Hidalgo and Mercedes Llopart. On Dec. 4, 1945 {…}
Thomas Kinch has joined Askonas Holt for management in Europe. Kinch will be managed at Askonas Holt by Angelica Conner and Charlotte Bateman, in collaboration with Trevor Newman at Opus 3 Artists in North America. Kinch is a Welsh tenor currently at the Adler Fellow at San Francisco Opera, appearing this season as Don José in “Carmen” and Melot in {…}
California’s The Ridgecrest Chamber Music Society will present “Dolce Armonia” on Feb. 8, 2024. The performance will feature Artistic Director David Hodgson alongside soprano Emma Berggren, Chilean tenor Felipe Prado, pianist Helen Wu, and resident artist and mezzo-soprano Amber Peterson as they take on music by Puccini, Verdi, and Mozart. The showcase kicks off at 4 p.m. local time at {…}
In the grand setting of the 2025 Amadeus, Amadeus Festival in Hamburg, Jordi Savall delivered a performance of Mozart’s “Great Mass in C Minor,” (K.427) that stood as a testament to the power of unfinished works. Collaborating with his longtime assistant and keyboardist Luca Guglielmi, Savall brought one of Mozart’s most intricate and incomplete masterpieces to life, blending historical {…}
Maia Gonzalez and Zhedong Ren will headline the New Amsterdam Symphony Orchestra’s Valentine’s Day Concert. The showcase, set for Feb. 14, 2025, at Symphony Space, will feature the two vocalists performing Mimì and Rodolfo’s scene from “La Bohème,” including the two famed arias (“Che gelida manina” and “Sì, mi chiamano Mimì”) and the duet “O soave fanciulla.” Also on the {…}
(Photo: courtesy of Vannina Santoni) Jules Massenet completed more than 30 operas over the course of his career, scoring numerous successes. Within a few years of his death, however, his reputation had faded. Today, apart from “Werther,” “Manon” and to a lesser extent “Thaïs,” most opera-goers would struggle to name more than one or two other titles. Opera companies reinforce {…}
SAS Performing Arts Company kicks off its 5th anniversary season with “An Afternoon at the Opera: The Radio Days,” on Feb. 16. The program celebrates legendary broadcasts like “The Saturday Afternoon Metropolitan,” “Opera Texaco Broadcasts,” “The Bell Telephone Hour,” and “The Menotti Radio Hour.” Soprano Cassandra Douglas and baritone Jonathan R. Green open the double bill with arias and duets {…}